Hunger striker's sister will lobby for his release at COP27 in Egypt

(MENAFN) As British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other global leaders kicked off the COP27 climate meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, the sister of Egyptian-British hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah arrived to plead for his release.

“I’m here to do my best to try and shed light on my brother’s case and to save him,” according to Sanaa Seif, Abd el-Fattah’s sister, after arriving in Sharm el-Sheikh in the early hours of Monday.

“I’m really worried. I’m here to put pressure on all leaders coming, especially Prime Minister Rishi Sunak,” stated by Seif, who had recently been leading a sit-in outside the British Foreign Office in London.

Sunak has stated that he will bring Abd el-plight Fattah's to the attention of Egypt's government. In an intensification of his protest, Abd el-Fattah notified his family that he would quit drinking water on Sunday.

The 40-year-old political activist rose to notoriety during Egypt's 2011 revolt but has been imprisoned for the most of that time. He was sentenced to five years in jail in December 2021 on allegations of distributing fake news, and he has been on hunger strike for 220 days in protest of his confinement and prison conditions.

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